PITTSBURGH (AP)  A former University of Pittsburgh student who pleaded guilty to being the go-between for Chinese students who paid to have impostors take college entrance exams received a probationary term and will be deported.

Han Tong had faced up to three years in prison in Monday’s sentencing.

His lawyer asked for a variance and U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti granted it.

The lawyer, James Brink, and the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.

Tong is one of 15 Chinese citizens charged by federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh last year with conspiring to have impostors take the SAT or other college entrance tests in western Pennsylvania since 2011.

The scam and others like it prompted The Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey, to bolster security at U.S. testing sites.